Rodrigues to Reunion

Cilaos, Reunion

 As expected, the passage took 4 days. We had a mixed bag of weather – no gales and no calms but everything in between. I took Stugeron for the first 24 hours. We went south of Mauritius and experienced some large, breaking swells coming from different directions. Sometimes the sea continued to be unusually rough even though the wind was moderate. We experienced our fastest 24 hours as recorded on the log – 162 miles. We had to gybe twice.

Jeremy on Dry Land

On our approach to Reunion, Jeremy and I were shocked to discover that John’s waypoints took us very close to the surrounding coral reef. Adjustments were made and we approached the coast safely in daylight on Tuesday 20^th October. Once the leading lines (there are two sets) had been identified we entered St Pierre harbour with no problems and tied up to the wall for the night. Immigration visited us and checked our passports but there was no need for a stamp as Reunion is part of Europe. There was no checking in fee. A small fishing boat drifted astern of us. The outboard engine was not working and it was taking on water. The owner was clinging on to the wall and appeared to be in shock. Jeremy went over to help and used one of our buckets to bail out. John provided a rag for Jeremy to stuff in the hole in the side of the boat and a sinking was prevented. I flagged down a passing local boat and the “casualty” was towed to safety.

Getting close to the Hauts

The next morning the Harbourmaster directed us to a berth in the marina. A strong wind was blowing but we managed to tie up safely with a little help from ashore. Soon we had mains electricity (included in the marina charges) and water. Jeremy and I emptied the tin store on board Sara II and filled it with tins from the front cabin. We made a provisioning list and logged our current supplies.

We had not caught any fish on passage, so we did the next best thing – bought fresh fillets of dorade (mahi mahi) from the quayside and ate it on board for dinner.

The ablutions block at Jean Louis Gite

Jeremy and I jumped ship again and took the bus up to Ciloas, where we booked into a gite for the night. We made the mistake of walking too far and going on too strenuous a hike for the jelly-legged sailors we seemed to have become. We enjoyed a good meal out in Chez Noe, where the waiter was from Glasgow, so no language difficulties for a change. We were much more sensible the following day and chose a largely uphill walk, as my legs refused to go downhill anymore, from La Pavillion to Peter Both. We caught the bus back to St Pierre and collapsed on to Sara II.

We have been reunited with Stefan and his family. We had walked past him several times and not recognised him as he now owns a catamaran and a different yacht, having sold Pas de Deux. He invited us all for drinks one evening, let us use his washing machine and tumble drier and helped us telephone a gite in Mafate. Thank you once again for your hospitality.

Kathy crossing the River Galets

On Monday morning, all three of us set off on a one and a half hour bus ride to Le Port. Here we split up, with John going on to St Denis and beyond, actually completing a circumnavigation of the Island by bus (all for a cost of 6 Euros). Meanwhile Jeremy and I had an appointment with Renaldo in a cat cat at Le Piste pres de l’Eglise de Riviere de Galets. Most of this was mumbo jumbo to us, but it turned out to be a 4 x 4 at the track close to the River Galet Church. All went well and Renaldo dropped us off in the Porte de Mafate one and a half hours early at Le Deux Bras. We walked uphill for four hours and arrived at Jean Louis’ Gite. This was a wonderful gite and Mrs Jean Louis was a lovely hostess, despite speaking French rather rapidly.

We enjoyed two nights at the gite. The second day was a little spoilt by the rain and we returned early as the sentiers were definitely glissantes. On Wednesday, we returned to Sara II after a four hour, mainly downhill trek. Once again Renaldo gave us a big lift in his cat cat (quatre quatre – get it?) and the three buses home fell on time like magic. We learned that we may leave on Friday 30^th October and that the marina will not charge us at all if we leave about midday!

Cocos to Rodrigues

We enjoyed our break in Cocos Keeling, not that there was much time for relaxing. The World ARC left us plenty of fresh food, so we were able to stock up in readiness for our next sea passage of almost 2000 miles.

Two Skippers on Cocos

As expected, the conditions on the passage were mixed. Often there were two swells, one behind and one from the south. The half knot of current kept disappearing or going against us, so we could not rely on a boost to our boat speed. We had settled weather for several days flying full sails (main, staysail, genoa) keeping about 30 degrees off the wind on a run. This meant we went much further south than Jeremy or I would have done on a dead run on Sal Darago. John was adamant that this didn’t matter on such a long passage and the wind would come round well before we reached Rodrigues. There was often more E than S in the SE trades so the wind did not come round. Consequently, we had to gybe on the last day of our passage and have an uncomfortable night going north or we would have missed Rodrigues altogether!

The base of the bread proving oven

Generally speaking, the crew worked well together. There were some issues and areas of disagreement, but when everyone’s help was needed when the autohelm stopped working, we all played our part to keep Sara II sailing. John fitted a new drive unit, Jeremy hand steered by compass and I kept a watch out for vessels.

Running repairs. Both harnessed on.

We were all relieved when we anchored in the harbour at Port Mathurin after 14 days at sea. We asked permission from the Coastguard on VHF 16. Within 10 minutes of anchoring the Health officer came on board quickly followed by the Police/Coastguard. Next we had to go ashore to see Immigration on the wharf and Customs in the Port Office. The only fee to pay was for the health check.

Jeremy and I jumped ship after the first night and stayed in a hotel for 2 nights’ bed and breakfast. Here, we have enjoyed the luxury of hot showers, a double bed and no cooking. On board, I had one shower/hairwash in 14 days and Jeremy washed in sea water on the deck. There was always concern that too much water was being used on board, but it was difficult to be certain of this as the tank gauges were unreliable. Jeremy and I stopped drinking the tank water as both the keel tank and the middle tank had bits in them and John could not be sure when the tanks had last been cleaned out. Fortunately, we had an emergency supply of bottled water.

The cure for seasickness!

We have enjoyed revisiting one of our favourite and still unspoiled islands. Our legs are aching from walking in the hills after so long at sea.

We intend to leave for Reunion on Saturday after buying provisions at the market. The sea passage should take about 4 days.